p r o j e c t Mitchell c l i e n t Texas
Physics Complex, College Station
A&M University, GPM Inc. and Affiliates
a r c h i t e c t Michael
Graves & Associates
d e s i g n t e a m Thomas
Rowe, AIA; Michael Graves, FAIA; Mark Sullivan, AIA; Saverio
Manago, AIA c o n t r a c t o r Vaughn
Construction
c o n s u l t a n t s Walter
P Moore (structural); Shah Smith & Associates (MEP); Houston
Advanced Research Ctr. (LEED); Clark Condon Associates (landscape); Fisher Marantz Stone (lighting); SSRCx (commissioning); DataCom Design Group (acoustics/AV/IT/ security); Jack Soeffing (hardware); Construction Specifications (specifications); Gessner Engineering (materials testing) p h o t o g r a p h e r Richard
Payne, FAIA
Since the implementation of the 2004 Master Plan (by Barnes Gromatzky Kosarek Architects with Michael Dennis & Associates) at the College Station campus of Texas A&M University, new facilities must respond to mandates affecting a wide range of architectural issues. They include energy-efficient design principles, connections to the surrounding community, facade articulation, and the use of materials consistent with those at the historic core of the campus. The new Mitchell Physics Complex, designed by Michael Graves & Associates (MGA), exceeds these goals while also providing much needed inspiration for design on this frequently dreary campus. Opened to classes in January 2010, the $82.5 million complex comprises a pair of buildings – the George P. Mitchell ’40 Physics Building and the George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy – encompassing a total of 197,000 square feet. Both buildings – the L-shaped Physics Building and elliptical Astronomy Institute – are situated on a difficult triangular site along busy University Drive at the northern perimeter of the campus. The site’s western boundary is Ireland Street, a major pedestrian, bike, and service route that links the core campus with pedestrian-unfriendly University Drive. Here is where the TAMU campus, bordered by green space on its other three sides, has its only “urban” connection with the City of College Station. Directly across University Drive – actually a highway (FM 60) – is the Northgate neighborhood, an entertainment and residential district catering to students. City officials are studying ways to “calm” the vehicular traffic and create a safer connection while making the area more amenable to students with landscaped streetscapes and widened sidewalks. Indeed, the 2004 Master Plan called attention to the “lack of a defined edge on University Drive that weakens the physical connection to the community.” While the massive North Side Parking Garage to the west and the Jack E. Brown Chemical Engineering Building to the east certainly do form an edge, it is more like an impenetrable cliff of bland masonry.
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